So yeah, Google totally just won the conference showdown by easily beating both Apple and Microsoft. Not only did Google announce Android 4.1 with some really cool new features, a cheap but non-crippled tablet, and a new Android device called the Nexus Q, but they also opened up pre-orders for Google Glass. So yeah.

The one thing remarkable about that tablet is the price. It's Google coercing Asus into a race to the bottom on its way into relevance in the tablet market.

I'm not sure how sustainable this will be in the long run for device makers. However, having pulled the trigger on a 16GB version, I'm not complaining right now.

On another note, I was pleasantly surprised to see Google doing something to improve UI responsiveness (Project Butter). Last December I got a general head-in-the-sand vibe from the "Android graphics true facts" fracas on Google+. I wonder what the Android apologists have to say about that now.

Those price points are impressive, if an OEM can recoup the costs. You're not telling me they're making any kind of profit on those devices. Amazon sells at a loss and their specced lower.

ASUS has no ecosystem to make money off of, unlike Amazon. Unless Google is doing some sort of Marketplace and Ad revenue market sharing. Its unsustainable. They're just hoping to be a loss leader into some market share.

Like I said, Project Butter still isn't working..The Verge said that the smoothness still isn't up to par..4 CPU cores later.

Those price points are impressive, if an OEM can recoup the costs. You're not telling me they're making any kind of profit on those devices. Amazon sells at a loss and their specced lower.

Nexus 7 is being sold at production cost, ASUS revealed. ASUS and Google hope for the same profit as Amazon does - content and app sales. That 30% off Google Play is split between the network operator, manufacturer and payment processor(according to Google).

Gizmodo says that Google will be selling its tablets at loss, and hoping to make up the difference via ads and online software sales. Which means that they will be undercutting other android tablet makers, which can't match Google's price since they have no way to recoup losses like Google does. This may be the end of the Android tablet market as far as non-Google devices are concerned.